by Karen Wilk
Karen Tamminga-Paton has done numerous paintings of hands and there is something about them that invites us to consider all of life, and in particular our relationships with one another and creation. Take a moment to look at her painting. Take another moment to pay attention to your own hands and perhaps those of others around you. Think about all the bones, muscles, joints, veins and all the other intricacies and abilities of hands! What do you notice? What do they do well? With what do they struggle? How do they bless? How have they treated whatever they touch and how have they been treated? Ponder the painting again and read the following out loud. How will you receive and use the gift of hands today?
Hands
………Worn, wrinkled
………Worked, working,
………Stained.
God gave us hands
………Hands to make and mold
………Hands to have and hold
Young hands, soft and bold
Aching, cracked hands, grown old.
God gave us hands
………To raise in praise
………To clap and sing, write and play
………To cook, to wash and point the way.
God gave us hands
………To garden and gather
………To lend and to share
………To till and to tend
………To reach out and care.
………To feel and to grow
………To make right
………………and seek to know…
But we have taken those hands
………Misused and abused them
………Hurt, enslaved, and refused them
They’ve been squeezed too tight
Cuffed, cut, burnt, and made to fight
Rolled up from open, to fisted
Gone from giving to grabbing
………Selfish, savage, twisted…
And still, Creator loves those hands
And holds them wholly close to God’s heart
Each unique, embodied Holy art
………Cherished, precious, irreplaceable
………Full of potential, fully valuable
………So much so that God made them
His Own
Gathering heaven and earth in One
………Healing, helping, embracing Son
………………Suffering all,
………………………til all is done.
God gave us hands-
Beauty and opportunity
………Creator’s creativity
………………Spirit’s possibility
………………………Incarnate Infinity
………………………………Tangible Divinity
………Inviting our receptivity…
God gave us hands.
Christine Sine is offering three seasonal, virtual retreats to explore living in balance and in line with the natural and liturgical rhythms of the year. Join her for one or all of them September 2, October 14 and December 9. These retreats will encourage us to center ourselves and our lives as we move through the seasons beginning in Fall and moving through Advent. They will be times of reflection, creativity and fun.